From Beyond the sand book 2 Hidden in the Leaves
by gummi bear ninja
Summary: Part 2 of From beyond the sand. Miniko, now 12 has lived in Konoha for 4 years now and has had no success of making contact with her childhood friend Gaara. She begins to meet other people and developing friendships. She's happy Miniko can't help but feel empty without her old friend who still alone back in Suna and what events will occur when they meet again. GaaraXOC


**Gummibearninja- Hey welcome back to book two of From Beyond the sand! Before you begin reading I highly recommend you read book 1 if you are a new reader so you can have an easier understanding of the story or if you are like me and is too lazy for that you can PM me if you need anything explained. **

**Anyway without further ado here's book two!...Awesome I made a rhyme!**

**Miniko-Well she haven't changed at all…anyway we don't own Naruto.**

Oh and please no bashing but friendly advice to improve is fine

Chapter 1

Unsent Letters

Miniko found herself standing alone in an empty desert. She looked around and soon saw both her parents, little sister and older brother standing about a hundred yards away. Miniko smiled as she tried to approach them but her body was paralyzed. Miniko called to them. "Mother! Father! Mayu! Yuuri! I'm over here! I'm back!"

At that her father turned to her. "It's because of you that we are all suffered like this."

Miniko paled as she tried to put words out. "Wh….What b...But-"

"We should have just given you to them." Her Father then had a delirium look in his eyes. "Why must we ALL go through hell because of YOU?"

Miniko suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe, as her family began walking away from her. Feeling she could move again, she ran to them. But they were gone. Miniko looked around, terrified and then suddenly she heard a demonic laughter behind her. Miniko turned and saw a group of shadows, beginning to approach her.

"Miniko…Miniko…Miniko…" They spoke with an echo in their speech. "Come…Come….Come."

Miniko could feel her heart beating faster as the shadows began running toward her. She quickly ran for what seemed like forever until she felt herself bumping into someone. She looked up and saw it was…Gaara! He turned and looked at her as he always has.

"Gaara!" She stood up and took hold of his hand. "I'm so happy that I could see you again! Look I'm-"

Gaara was then giving her a look of disgust as he yanked his hand away before she could finish. "I won't listen to this! Why should I? You will just make promises that you won't keep and betray me again!"

Miniko's eye were wide as she began to back away and tripped falling back into the pile of shadows that were chasing her. She struggled to get out as she saw Gaara standing there looking down at her.

"No! Gaara wait! I'm sorry about everything! WAIT!"

Suddenly Miniko woke up in her bed. Looking around she saw she was in her small apartment in Konoha. The sun was just peaking over the leaf village.

"Just a dream…" Miniko said as she laid down on her side and attempted to go back to sleep, the image her family and friend still replaying in her head. She tossed and turned for a bit before giving up on sleep and got out of bed and walked to her desk. Taking out a pen and paper, she began to write.

"Dear Gaara…" Miniko mumbled aloud as she begin to write.

XXXXXXX

It's been 4 years since Miniko was brought from her hometown Suna to Konoha by her older brother to escape the agency that was after her. During this time Kakashi, a family friend whose father was good friends with her father Auron, agreed to help her with training.

Although Miniko doesn't mind her new life in Konoha she still missed the hot, dry desert climate in Suna, her overprotective older brother, who suddenly left right after he dropped her off with Kakashi. Her mischievous little sister, her strict father and loving mother who even if she were to return, would never see those three again.

As for Gaara she had no idea if he even still considered her a friend. Since Miniko was taken here by her brother in a hurry she didn't even get a chance to say good-bye to him, or even tell him where she was going. Shortly after getting here she would spend hours trying to increase her powers to try and reach him, but had no success.

One day she decided to try writing him a letter. Her hand was shaking with excitement as she was putting the envelope into the mailbox. Miniko left satisfied. So excited and so nervous at what he would respond with.

Weeks went by and there was no response. Miniko would go check the mailbox everyday but there would be nothing.

_Maybe he didn't get it yet or hasn't have had time to write… _ Miniko would think as she held her necklace, still wrapped around her neck that was given to her from Gaara when she was younger.

Time went on and anxiety took over. What if he was furious with her and felt he could no longer trust her. _It would make sense…_ she thought _with everything that happened why he would he want to friends with me anymore…. _

Not wanting that to be the truth, Miniko got herself to write another letter. This time though she just stared at the mailbox, her hands were shaking, but this time with worriedness and anxiety. In the end she walked home and throwing the letter in a drawer.

XXXXX

It's been four years since then and Miniko still made many attempts to write to him, but her nerves took over her whenever she tried to send it and she never could.

Miniko finished up writing the letter and after sealing it, she stared at it for a minute, before she stuffed it into the draw with the rest of the never sent letters.

XXXXX

Later that morning, Miniko headed toward the training field for her daily training session with Kakashi.

"Miniko!" She heard someone calling her from behind, she turned and saw it was Hinata.

She smiled, waved and stopped for her to catch up. "Hey Hinata!"

Miniko has met Hinata shortly after coming to Konoha and she and they quickly became good friends and it was nice to have another girl close in age to talk to. Even back in Suna, unless it was her mom, the only ones she could talk to was Gaara or her brother Yuuri and well, there is just things you don't talk about with a boy.

The two friends chatted as they walked down the streets of Konoha. Miniko then noticed Hinata was fidgeting with her fingers again.

"Hey Hinata…"

"Huh! Uh-yes?" She said looking up.

"Are you nervous about something?" Miniko asked

"Hinata gasped. "Were you able to read that with your telepathy?" Hinata asked, knowing Miniko has that ability.

Miniko shook her head. "Don't need my powers to read everything." she laughed. "Seriously though what's wrong? You can tell me if it helps." Miniko smiled

Hinata blushed. "Well you see…we are going to be getting put on teams today…..I guess I'm just worried who I will be with…" Hinata sighed "I wish you were in the academy. Then there could be a chance we could have been on a team together."

Miniko smiled. "Yeah that would be nice. But you know since I'm not actually from here it would be difficult to register me as an official ninja yet."

Hinata nodded "Yeah I guess you're right…"

Miniko has told people almost nothing about her history. She has told Hinata very little about her past in Suna and has mentioned nothing to her about the agency after her.

All Hinata knows was that she was from Suna being cared for by her brother and he had to go on a long mission far away and temporally left her in Konoha where her parents were originally from. That was the story she stuck with and it wasn't like it was a complete lie.

Miniko wanted to tell people or the very least her friend. She hasn't even mentioned to Hinata that she had a little sister and there were so many stories she wanted to share. But she couldn't. Thinking about all the ones she lost her parents, sibling and Gaara and all that pain her and the others she cared for went through. She couldn't let that happen again. Miniko has kept everything isolated and as much as she didn't want to, kept it that way.

"But Hinata, don't worry about it!" Miniko started "You're very nice and hardworking! Whatever team you end up with will be lucky to have you!" Miniko said told her with confidents.

Hinata gave her a smile "Thanks Miniko. I'll tell you about everything later!"

At that point the two girls went their separate ways.

XXXXXXX

As Miniko approached the training field, she was surprised that, for once, Kakashi was already there.

"Well this is a first, Kakashi-sensei! Am I late or something?" Miniko said when she approached her teacher.

"You talk as if I'm always late. As a shinobi, it's my role to show young shinobi, as yourself, to know the importance of arriving to destinations at the exact written time." Kakashi said, not looking up from the book in his hand.

_Yeah that would be true if you actually did show up on time for once… _

"Anyway Miniko…" Kakashi started as he put away his book. "Before we begin I have to tell you about something. It seems I have been asked to teach the new Genin, who just graduated from the academy."

Miniko's eyes went wide. "So does that mean I'm going to be on my own with training?" Miniko assumed

Kakashi shoot his head. "No…I had to pull a few strings, but I am having you join team 7.

Miniko looked confused. "Wait! How does that work? I'm not even registered as a shinobi or even a Genin!"

"Well since the Hokage knew of you situation I was able to get permission to continue with your training by allowing you to do missions, as if you were registered." Kakashi explained.

"The Hokage knows?" Miniko asked "Since when?"

"He always had. Your father was one of his trusted shinobi and also he had to know in order for you to stay here."

"Oh…" Miniko blushed, embarrassed that she never thought of it like that. "So when am I meeting this team?"

"Well I'll be meeting them after lunch today and tomorrow have to put them through an exercise to see if they are qualified." Kakashi explained

"What kind of exercise?" Miniko asked

"That is for me to know and you to find out." Kakashi said slyly.

Miniko shuddered. Sure she could have read his mind to find out… but something told her that it was best she didn't know.

_The next day_

Miniko sat there fidgeting with her necklace wrapped around her neck. Feeling nervous about supposing meeting her new teammate tomorrow _Geez here I go telling Hinata to relax and now I'm just as nervous as she was… _

Getting sick of letting this beat her, she made her way to the training field to take her mind off everything.

XXXXXXX

As Miniko got closer to the training field, she noticed something off about one of the training stumps, that that she could see from a distance. _What is with the orange flag? _She thought then she came to a realization _Wait a second! Is that….someone tied up!?_ And with that she hurried to inspect it.

When she got there she saw a boy in an orange jump-suit with blonde spiky hair around her age. _What happened? Why is he tied up? _ Miniko thought. To be on the safe side, using her telepathy read his mind to make sure he was alright.

_Ramen….I could really go for some ramen…. _She read

"He seems alright." Miniko said as she looked around for the knot to untie him. When she couldn't find one she began to dig through her rucksack and pulled out a kunai. She began to approach the rope and got ready to cut it. Suddenly the boy opened his eyes.

"Huh….W-Wait! What are you doing?" He spoke quickly

Miniko yelped at his sudden outburst and fell back the kunai falling to the ground.

"Are you enemy ninja!?" He continued "Cause I'm warning ya! You're dealing with Naruto Uzumaki! The next Hokage of the Hidden leaf village!"

Miniko stuttered as she tried to explain. "W-Wait! I-I'm not here to fight you! I came here to train and I saw you tied up and thought you needed help! But if this is part of your training, I'm sorry I'll go somewhere else!" Miniko began packing up anything that fell out of her bag and got up.

The boy, who addressed himself as Naruto called out to stop her. "Wait! Wait! Don't go! You got it all wrong this isn't part of any training! My team left me here after a training excersis! Please help me! I'm starving!"

Miniko stopped and turned to him she gave a quick nod and pulled out her kunai and freed the ball of energy.

He briefed a sigh of relief "Aw man I thought I was going to be stuck there all day." He looked at Miniko and smiled from ear to ear. "Thanks a lot! For that if you're ever in trouble, I'll be there to help!"

Miniko's shy side began to show. "Oh…no problem… uh how did you even get tied up anyway?" Miniko asked

Naruto sighed "I kinda tried to sneak lunch during the time we were training and uh….I kinda ended up getting caught…"

Miniko couldn't help but giggle at his unfortunate incident, making Naruto chuckle as well.

"I still haven't had a chance to eat yet." Naruto said finally with a groan. "Hey you want to go get some lunch with me? Ya know it's thanks to you I don't have to starve!"

Miniko smiled "S-sure! M-My name is Miniko by the way. Miniko Utama."

"Nice to meet ya! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, but you already knew that!" Naruto then quickly began walking toward the village. "Come on I'll show you my favorite place to eat!"

Miniko nodded as she followed. "Does this place have anything to do with ramen?" she asked

"Yeah how did you know?"

Miniko smiled "Uh-lucky guess."

XXXXXXX

Naruto talked the entire time on the way to Ichiraku's Ramen. Miniko listened, kind of amazed of how many topics Naruto could talk about of just simple soup and noodles.

He finally stopped talking when they were finally in the building and began digging into their food. Miniko has walked by this place many times, but this was the first time she has actually eaten here. The ramen tasted a lot better than she thought.

"This is so good!" Miniko heard Naruto say

Miniko smiled "Yes your right this taste a lot better than I thought!"

Naruto looked at her confused "Huh I didn't say anything? I was thinking that though."

Miniko's smiled disappeared and she blushed. "Huh?! Oh-well you see…" Naruto continued to stare at her, clearly wanting an explanation. Miniko sighed "You see…I have both telepathy and telekinesis and sometimes I can't really control it too well and I end up reading thoughts, thinking it was aloud. Sorry I really am trying to control it."

Naruto nodded. "Oh, Okay. Hey are you going to finish your bowl?" Naruto asked suddenly.

Miniko looked at him surprised before she smiled and slide her bowl to his. "Sure."

"Alright!" Naruto beamed as he slurped down the rest of hers.

"Oh…" The two heard a sudden voice they turned to see Kakashi. "Miniko you're here and Naruto I was just about to go back and untie you."

_Then what are you doing here? _Miniko thought to herself

"What was taking you so long!? And if you were coming, why did you come here?!" Naruto demanded.

"What a man's got to eat, when a man's got to eat."

"Yeah yeah….Whatever." Naruto said in disbelief.

"Any way Miniko I came by to also tell you that the arrangements have been set and you will now be joining team 7 on doing missions and continuing your training. This knucklehead is on it as well."

Naruto looked at Miniko surprised. "Really you'll be joining us on missions now?"

Miniko chuckled "I guess so."

Naruto smiled "That's great! Now we can finally have someone who can acknowledge my true strength!" Naruto said with excitement

"Naruto you might want to stop sneaking food and actually train properly yourself before you toot you own horn." Kakashi said coldly

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Naruto argued

Miniko couldn't laugh and was now getting a good feeling about joining this new team.

XXXXXXX

It was evening when Miniko finally got home. She sighed happily, now excited for tomorrow. She went to the mirror, to begin getting herself ready for bed then she saw her necklace dangling in the reflection. She sighed as she squeezed it in her hand. Although she was happy, did she really deserve any of this?

_Gaara…..I'm happy for myself but I can't help but keep worrying about you….I really wish things could have stayed as how they were or the very least you be here with me. Naruto can be kind of loud but I think you would have gotten along in the end….Gaara….I hope everything is going alright for you… _

Meanwhile in Suna

Mayu, now 8 years old, rushed down the streets of Suna

"Where is he?" Mayu said to herself as she looked around. She finally saw him about a hundred yards away Mayu took a deep breath as she approached him.

"Hey-uh-Gaara!" Mayu called to him her heart beating fast as she kept a slight distance from him. He turned and looked at her with a glare in his eyes. Miniko took another deep breath as she continued "You see- I heard that you and your siblings were entering the Chunin exams and their taking place in the leaf village and I was wondering if I could just tag along with guys and come along and I can look for my siblings…."

"Why are you asking me?" Gaara responded

Mayu shuddered. "Well-uh- Is just that I feel if I asked your siblings or Baki, they would have said no for sure, so I thought I could ask you and also because you were good friends with my sister so I thought you would understand as to why I-" Gaara cut her off

"I don't care if you do or not. But you better not get in the way." Gaara's glare intensified "And do not believe I feel the same sincerity you have to your sister. She has no meaning to me." At that Gaara walked off. He could the Shukaku chuckle.

"_You say that now. But can you really handle going to Konoha, knowing she is there." _

"Don't be stupid." Gaara responded "Even if I end up running into her she means nothing to me."

The Shukaku laughed diabolically. _"Well done! Don't disappoint me!" _

"Of course not…Mother."

**Chapter 1 complete I wrote an extra long one as an apology for being so busy and not having much time to write (if it's too long tell me and I'll write the next chapters shorter.) Anyway I also just wanted to say that this more based on Naruto and is not going to be following the original series but maybe a few events. Anyway I hope you enjoy the rest of book two. **

**P.S- In case any of you is wondering Miniko is 12 right now. **


End file.
